Monday, June 23, 2008

Been a while...

I haven't written for a while now. I had a crisis of confidence in my motivation. Am I doing this for the wrong reasons? I still don't know, but this morning I was nearly forced to stop, so I did. It felt good.

As I approached the middle street merge area, I saw a young lady on the side of the road, her car's hood up and she was on the cellphone. I was late for work and in the center lane and although I felt sorry for her I wasn't planning to stop.

Then the blue Acura in front of me stopped dead in my lane. Soon his hazard lights came on and I realized he was having trouble. I kicked on the amber flasher and got out to check on him. Right then someone else came to help to so we pushed his car off to the side of the road, getting him out of the dangerous traffic. I ran back to my truck and got it off the road too and checked on both stalled cars.

The Acura just died. He had gas and battery and was not overheating and he just called his dad to help. I walked over to the young lady and inquired if she was OK, and likewise her dad was on the way. As is typical, there was really nothing else I could do.

I said my "goodbyes" and "be carefuls" and got back on the road, very late for work now, but I called the boss and he said "no problem."

It's frustrating not being able to always solve the problem. I keep lots of resources with the truck (tools, water, gas, a battery-jumper, air compressor, duct tape) but if there is something mechanically wrong with the car, a call and a tow is about all that can be done. I was surprised how many times people with cellphones just wave off help. It happens a lot!

Maybe I'll start to stop again (that sounds funny). Stay tuned.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I read your tweet this morning on Twitter, I thought about how nice it was that you took the time to help out. I had no idea you have a blog about helping motorists and do things like this on a fairly regular basis!!! This is just beyond cool! :)

Once upon a time, my young daughter and I were driving home at night when the car just died! Not just the engine, either, the lights and everything died while we were in the lane. I kept trying to start the car with no luck. We were scared and didn't know what to do.

A woman stopped to yell at us because she almost hit us--no lights! Then she realized what was going on and was kind enough to help me push it off the road before rushing off to work, probably a little late. I never did catch her name. Always wished I could have thanked her properly with a note or cookies or something!

Please do continue with your mission! I don't think you'll ever truly know how much of a difference your actions make in the lives of others.

Rich said...

Thank you for your wonderful encouragement! You'll see from the post dates that I have not been doing this regularly, but I'm thinking of picking it up again. With your encouragement I think I most likely will.

-Rich